Electronic chips such as microprocessor chips generate much heat. As processing power goes up, the chips produce more heat which could damage the electronic circuits in the chip; therefore it is important to cool the chips. Many cooling methods have been developed for directly cooling hot chips, heat sinks being one such method. Generally, heat sinks fall into two categories: active heat sinks and passive heat sinks. Active heat sinks cool a chip using a fan or other active devices to move heat away from the chip. Passive heat sinks perform the cooling function without a fan, instead relying on ambient conditions provided by design to cool the chip.
Active heat sinks, because they employ a fan or other mechanism, require that some energy be expended in order to cool the chip. Additionally, the introduction of a moving part (the fan) to the cooling device increases the possible failure mechanisms. Some passive heat sinks address these problems by using a cooling fluid to cool the hot chips rather than a fan. The use of fluid is not without its problems. In one of the latest developments in passive heat sink technology, the Heatlane™ heat pipe device (Heatlane is a trademark of TS Heatronics Co., Ltd.) relies on an unstable, oscillatory exchange of fluid and gas back and forth within the evaporation section of the device. This is problematic because hot fluid and gas might return into the evaporation section. Also, with the Heatlane™, energy needs to be expended to cool the chip by way of a fan blowing air through the air heat exchanger. Heat pipes use a wick to return the fluid to the evaporation section. This technology has reached its limits in modern systems—multiple heat pipes need to be used on single chips because not enough coolant is available in a single pipe.
Therefore, there is a need for a better passive cooling method and apparatus for chips that generate more heat.